i'm a princess cut from marble smoother than a storm
by katanafleet
Summary: Her parents try to stop him, tell him that she's better off alone, tell him that he can't do anything; he hears the undertone that's never, ever spoken (You're nothing but a pirate) but he follows her every time. She is his princess, and he will never give her up. (I'd go to the end of the world for her.)


( _Emma was born with the potential for great darkness_.)

( _But she's the saviour. A hero. Her magic's as light as it gets_.)

The dream of love fades.

She wakes with a scream.

The dark bedroom shimmers with violet power. For a moment, her vision blurs with images of a previous life (a _good_ life)—

—A beautiful man with a shining hook for a left hand and a joyful grin and quiet words of love and a kiss on his lips—

—A smiling boy standing at her green door wearing a striped scarf and an earnest look of love and encouragement and holding a storybook—

—A man and a woman straight out of a fairy tale at the only place she's called home, waiting with open arms to welcome her to her first real family—

But they (contentment joy peace hope love love _love_ ) soon fade into the euphoria of magic and death and pain and abandonment and magic to _destroy everything that dares stand in her way_.

She will have her revenge.

He jerks awake when she rises, pulls on her new gray leather jacket, and disappears from the darkened house in silence.

Her parents try to stop him, tell him that she's better off alone, tell him that he can't do anything; he hears the undertone that's never, ever spoken ( _You're nothing but a pirate_ ) but he follows her every time. She is his princess, and he will never give her up.

( _I'd go to the end of the world for her_.)

All is clear to her now. Anything before now was just a dream. A dream (of light and love and joy but she no longer remembers those words they are nothing only power matters).

( _All magic comes at a price, dearie_.)

The magic lights the path to an old wishing well (man with a wooden leg summer writer magical clean water the sign is magic) and she stares into its depths.

She is power.

Her blonde hair flows behind her. Her eyes flicker red to clearest green to red. Her hands sparkle with magic. Beautiful.

A stick breaks behind her.

She summons a fireball (Evil Queen magic evil fire magic _Magic is power_ euphoria stop burning pain fire power freedom) and, whirling about, throws the magic into the forest.

Trees ignite.

No sound through the cracking of burning plants.

He watches her through the trees. Her hair twirls about her in its own hurricane. Her magic swirls in a violet shimmering maelstrom on the ground, throwing branches and leaves into the air.

She throws the fire into the forest after an unfortunate squirrel and he catches a glimpse of her face. Hard. Cold. Untouchable. Dark.

Still his love.

She turns to the path back to town and he tenses.

She strides like the dark princess she is onto the path and he melts into the trees to follow her once more.

He will always find her.

And he will always bring her home.

( _My walls were up. You brought them down. You brought me home._ )

Because she saved him.

(Love faith love joy love hope magic light)

(Evil darkness swirling vortexes of power)

She craves the screams of a dwarf as he burns in her fire.

He follows her into the town. She walks as if on a palace's marble floor. Majestic, haughty, and beautiful.

( _I was just thinking about what you said in Storybrooke. About not being a princess_.)

She screams to the sky, "Face me, you pitiful excuses for mortals!"

She throws out her arms and her hands shoot fire into the slowly descending clouds.

( _Actually, I quite fancy you from time to time when you're not yelling at me_.)

Soon, the humans (friends loved ones enemies hated ones) emerge from their hiding places and simply watch her. Some whisper to each other, pointing at her. Some gape, open-mouthed. Some, the cowards, crawl from their holes with their hands in the air.

Magic-less mortals.

(Her town. Her people.)

(Her victims.)

He weaves through the steadily increasing crowd that watches her with fear. Some whisper when they see him.

("It's Hook." "Think he'll be able to fix her?" "Probably." "Maybe." "But maybe he'll join her." "They are dating now, anyway." "He'll probably join her.")

(The path opens wider after those words.)

He makes his way to the front and watches.

She paces back and forth, front and back, pavement cracking and burning beneath her feet. Her path makes a fiery circle overlapped by smoking circles.

A flower. The flower of her tattoo. A buttercup.

He decides.

He is going to save her.

He'll probably die.

( _The only thing I care about is that you don't forget who you really are. I would rather die than let you fill your heart with darkness_.)

(But they, Snow White and Prince Charming, the great heroes, aren't here. He's all she has right now.)

As she paces, she watches the crowd. Their anticipation and fear mounts. Her gaze is unimpassioned and unaffected.

That dwarf, there, he would be the first. (Sleepy.) He looked perplexed and ridiculous and barely awake. His screams of pain as he burned in her fire will satisfy her.

She reaches her hand out toward him. The dwarves next to him (Grumpy Bashful Dopey) cry out as she lifts him into the air, her magic choking him slowly, slowly, agonizingly.

The people watch in dismay and some (Doc Sneezy Happy) try to run forward, only to be caught and dragged back by their friends.

She laughs as the dwarf claws at his tightening neck.

She prepares her fire.

He will burn in a magnificent display of her power. And none will oppose her.

The people whisper and she pauses. How dare they speak while she kills their cowardly comrade?

But a man steps out from the crowd.

He slowly walks toward her. "Emma, love."

Her head jerks toward him.

Her vision tunnels when she looks at the (devastatingly handsome) newcomer.

(Hook Killian love Killian Jones man with a hook beautiful face brother boyfriend love Killian _love_.)

She shakes her head. No.

(Idiot of a pirate who interrupts her sport with the dwarf.)

"My name is Emma Swan, yes, but I am no man's love," she snarls. "And I know you not."

He walks just a little closer.

"Please, love. My love. Come back to me."

Her magical grip on Sleepy falters. He screams as he drops a few feet through the air, just a quick drop from bashing his head against the asphalt.

"Let go of him. Please, love. His death will do you no good, I assure you." He tries to smirk apologetically.

She smiles. Unforgiving. Dark. Unrelenting.

Sleepy rises a few more feet into the air and he chokes for breath.

"Who are you to say who I may or may not destroy?" she snaps.

( _Perhaps there's a man you love in the life you lost_.)

The pirate (Hook Killian love villain beanstalk hook Killian) steps forward, a pained smile on his face. The dwarf rises higher and higher, his screams fading into tired yelps.

He would die before her fire could touch him.

( _I was hoping it'd be you_.)

"No one special. Just someone who loves you with all his bloody heart."

(Killian love evil love pirate Hook.)

( _There's not a day will go by I won't think of you_.)

Her grip falters once more.

( _Good_.)

The dwarf falls onto his brothers. They help him up, support his shaking legs, and stare at her.

Curious. Scared. Angry. Perplexed. Frightened.

The pirate speaks. "There you go, love. See?"

The crowd of mortals watches her. The pirate gazes her with love. The magic twists and burns.

The does the only thing she can do. The thing she's always been good at. Runs.

(Three dark figures watch from the shadows.)

He sprints after her, leaving the crowd to stare and whisper after them. Because to them, sometimes, he's just a pirate. Will always be just a pirate.

He will always find her.

He follows her to the docks. He stands a few feet behind her.

She looks out over the water. Pensive. Calm. Quiet.

"Who am I?" she asks slowly.

She doesn't know who she is.

(Emma dark princess evil saviour wicked loved hated beloved malevolent.)

( _Love_.)

She doesn't remember what love is. And it seems like it's a thing she wants to remember.

An hour ago it was simple.

An hour ago she would, right now, be standing, laughing, exulting in the burned and blackened remains of a dwarf at her feet.

( _You're something of an open book_.)

But now memories are crashing back like waves upon a house built on sand.

( _Don't think I'm taking my eyes off you for one second_.)

( _I would despair if you did_.)

He watches as she thinks. She battles with herself. Dark vs. light. And the light…

( _Please. You couldn't handle it_.)

( _Perhaps you're the one who couldn't handle it_.)

… It's coming.

"You're Emma Swan. You saved this town. You saved me. Captain bloody Hook."

( _You're a bloody hero, Swan_.)

( _So are you_.)

"I don't remember."

"You do. It's coming back." He takes a step closer. She tenses.

"Remember the Enchanted Forest, love? We fell down a magic portal back to your mother's days as a thief. We traveled together. We danced at your father's ball."

( _You appear to be a natural_.)

"We watched your parents fall in love. You got your magic back and you were magnificent."

(You were beautiful, love.)

She watches the water below.

( _Behold! The Rolly Joger!_ )

( _Cap'n! How did you – I thought you were still below deck. And why does your vest keep changing?_ )

( _I seem to remember a nightcap was promised. Find one, and I'll be waiting_.)

"Remember us, love. That's all I ask." His voice is soft, loving, and _she remembers_ him _._

( _Hook_.)

( _Did you miss me?_ )

(…Yes.)

The battle has begun. The Dark Princess fighting his Princess. He sees it in her body.

Back tense. Hands clenched. Head moving back and forth.

He waits.

There is nothing but magic and power and darkness. Nothing more of value. She slams her dark-glittering hands to her head.

Henry. Mary Margaret. David. Neal. Killian.

They love her.

No. They hate her. They're the reason she hates the world. Henry abandons her daily for Regina. Mary Margaret and David abandoned her to a world without magic, love, family for 28 years. Neal abandoned her for the crime he committed. Killian abandoned her –

Killian has never abandoned her.

( _Have I told you a lie?_ )

( _I can't take the chance that I'm wrong about you_.)

Killian waits for her. He never gives up on her. _He loves her_.

Magic swirls.

He waits. She rocks back and forth on her heels, her face buried in her hands, trying to block out the voices of her past.

Her hands clench and unclench at her sides. They glow with violet – white – violet – purest light magic.

( _I have yet to see you fail_.)

Falling to her knees, she screams with the pain of a thousand children abandoned, the pain of every mother forced to give up her child, the pain of a little Lost Girl who thought she'd never be wanted. Her magic reaches for the sky.

Violet upon white battle in the air.

The light wins.

( _And when you do succeed... Well. That's when the fun begins_.)

He catches her when she crumples to the ground.

"Please, love, please. Come back to me, Emma. I love you, Swan. Please come back to me."

Whispers, faint and anguished, awaken her.

She blinks and instinctively clutches at the jacket pressed against her nose and breathes in his addicting smell of the sea and worn leather and rum. Her lips tingle.

He kisses her when he can't immediately wake her. Kisses her so slowly and softly and wishes with all his unworthy, revenge-blackened heart that she'll come back to him.

She squirms in his arms but doesn't awake.

He carries her past the crowd still gathered in the middle of town. They goggle at him as he walks home. He hears whispers he doesn't try to decipher.

("Is she safe to be around?" "Of course she isn't!" "Did you see what she almost did to Sneezy?" "She can't be trusted!" "And he's a pirate! Captain _Hook_!" "Where is he taking her?")

(One voice whispers, "He loves her. She's fine now.")

He's taking his Swan home.

Mary Margaret and David pull the door open immediately and he pushes past them and baby Neal's cradle. He carries his Swan upstairs. Her parents stay below and pace at the foot of the stairs.

He sits on her bed and holds her. He whispers to her, mindlessly and distractedly. He brushes back her hair and watches her face. "Come back to me," he murmurs. He shuts his eyes, touches his forehead to hers, and breathes for a moment.

A faint whisper.

"Killian?"

She watches his eyes open. Those blue, blue, blue eyes. Quickly darkening with intensity and passion. He leans down and kisses her.

When he pulls away, tears are forming in her eyes. He stops her words (I'm sorry I'm so sorry I love you forgive me) with a finger to her lips. "No, love. Don't apologize."

"But I-"

"It wasn't you, Emma Swan," he whispers. "It wasn't you."

"I could have hurt you." She can't stop the tears now.

He brushes her tears away and smiles down at her.

His beautiful princess. Dark and light, just like him. Still a little broken. But mending.

( _You and I, we understand each other_.)

"Oh, Swan." He can't resist kissing her again. "You never will."

( _I'm gonna choose to see the best in you_.)

( _And I with you_.)


End file.
